Thinking about adding a mandarin to the tank

[tg1966]

We have mated male & female mandarins. Got them when tank was established for 24 months. Large refugium with cheato. In addition to pods they eat mysis, brine, blood worms, and lobster roe. Both are super fat and need to get to the gym.

 

[leviburns89]

After seeing how they capture mandarins in the wild, I don't want to be a part of that business. Then 2/3rds of them get sold just to die within the first month due to tanks unable to support them.

 

[mandarin_goby]

I got really lucky...I have a spotted mandarin male in my 57 rimless (20 long sump) who has taken to eating frozen food. He just went for it one day. He has plenty of pods too, and still roams around pecking at the rocks, but he's gotten pretty chunky and loves feeding time. I've had him for over a year and got him when the tank was about a year old. I also started with a little guy - my thought process (correct or not) was that a little one wouldn't eat as much. Heck, maybe the babies eat even more...either way, I'm really really happy he's thriving. Best of luck, they are truly beautiful fish!

 

[bat21]

After seeing how they capture mandarins in the wild, I don't want to be a part of that business. Then 2/3rds of them get sold just to die within the first month due to tanks unable to support them.

This. They spear them. The ones who heal, they sell. The others die. And then huge numbers of the sold ones die in inadequate tanks. The whole thing is sad.

 

[Brieninsac]

I'd like to eventually add a Mandarin too. What about seeding your tank with one of the bottle solutions like AlgaGen ReefPods Tisbe?

 

[Marty.H]

I have a pair of mandarins in my tank but I was adding upto 10 bags of pods a week well before I even added the mandarins.

My DT is 6x2x2 with a 4ft sump and the fuge is alive with pods in the chaeto and I have around 100 kilo of rock so have a massive breeding ground.

My mandarins also happily scoff pellet, frozen and flake so I'm quite lucky I suppose and they soon get in amongst the tangs to feed.


Here is one of mine

And the other looking at the fuzzy dwarf lionfish.

They are truly a stunning fish but as many have said please make sure you can fulfil there needs before even thinking of getting one

 

[leviburns89]

They truly are some of the most beautiful fish a hobbyist can own.

But the risk of them eating the whole food supply of copepods before you can (if lucky) ween them onto flake or pellet doesn't do it for me.

But it can be done, and has been several times over. I recommend keeping a decent size fuge stocked to the brim with copepods and the like if you want to be able to have one.

Otherwise even if you have a huge bloom of copepods, they can eat a ton of them, and devestate the population on no time.

 

[Entacmaea]

Awesome photo of the Mandarin, Marty - love it!